Prisoner Admits He Helped 2 Escape From Downtown Prison

June 15, 1985|By William B. Crawford Jr.

A prisoner at the federal Metropolitan Correctional Center who is cooperating with authorities in an investigation of a white supremacist group pleaded guilty Friday to charges that he helped two convicted murderers escape last month.

During a hearing before U.S. District Judge John Grady, Larry Vaughn, 33, a convicted murderer and a former member of the Aryan Brotherhood, admitted his role in the escape May 14 of Bernard Welch, 45, and Hugh Colomb, 31.

The Aryan Brotherhood is a neo-Nazi organization that recruits members inside and outside prison walls. It has claimed responsibility for the murders of several prison guards around the country.

Grady sentenced Vaughn to a year in prison .

Vaughn`s connection to the organization was made known by Robert Bailey, his attorney.

Details of the investigation of the racist group were not disclosed during the hearing. Bailey and Assistant U.S. Atty. Ira Raphaelson declined to elaborate after the hearing.

Welch and Colomb, both considered dangerous, are targets of a nationwide search. Federal authorities suspected from the start that they had help from inside the prison in getting out.

Welch was serving a 143-year-to-life sentence for murdering Dr. Michael Halberstam, a Washington cardiologist and brother of Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam. Colomb, sent to prison for robbery, was convicted while in custody of killing a fellow inmate and assaulting a prison guard. He was serving a 48-year sentence.

Vaughn, a member of the government`s witness protection program and under heavy guard at the correctional center, 71 W. Van Buren St., told Grady that he passed a hacksaw blade hidden in a pair of gym shoes to Welch and Colomb, who used it in their escape last month.

During the hearing, Raphaelson told Grady that Vaughn admitted to government investigators he passed on a pair of gym shoes containing a hacksaw blade to Colomb. Vaughn also said the gym shoes, containing two blades, had been mailed in May by DeAnna Yslava, of Tucson, to Gene Newby, 26, another inmate at the correctional center, 71 W. Van Buren St.

Federal officials have said the escapees took a barbell from an exercise area and used it to punch a 15-by-12-inch hole in the 7-inch-thick cinder block outer wall of the cell they shared. The hole was alongside one of the many slit-like, 10-foot-by-3-inch windows in the center.